‘IT’ Factor

“She used to reside with her distant relatives in Motinagar area of Lucknow,” says Yogesh Pravin,a movie buff and author of books on the history of Lucknow.

Originally,a resident of Lahore,her family had settled in Delhi after Partition and quest for quality education brought her to Lucknow. “An Arts student,she was in the first year of graduation when during a dramatics contest she was spotted by Kishore Sahu,veteran actor and producer,” says Praveen,adding that along with Sarin,Indira Panchal and Asha Mathur were also selected.

Sahu offered her the lead role in his film Kali Ghata which was released in 1951,while the other two IT girls too got small parts. Her family refused to allow her to join films,but she went on hunger strike till they were compelled. It was Anarkali,

released in 1953,which shot her to height of stardom.

“A photo studio in Lalbagh,Singh Studio,was lucky to have the negative of a picture taken of her when she was a student in Lucknow. Once Krishna Sarin became famous as Bina Rai/Anarkali,the studio owner enlarged the picture he had of her and it became a privilege for customers to be photographed with that blowup,” recalls MY Khan,78,forensic expert. “But those were not the days of media hype,so even when word was out that the girl who had become such a huge star was from IT College,there was no fuss made about it.”

Anarkali happened by default. K Asif’s Mughal-e-Azam was taking too long in the making so little known director Nandlal took off with the idea and made the film casting Bina Rai and Pradeep Kumar in the roles of Anarkali and Salim.

Bina Rai was no match in stardom to Nargis and Madhubala,but the musical hit that Anarkali went on to be,she got her spot under the sun.

Her repertoire was enriched further by another musical period drama Taj Mahal,also opposite Pradeep Kumar,released in 1963. But it was in the course of her career that she did Aurat opposite Premnath and married her co-star. Her histrionics in Ghunghat (1960) won her the best actress award.

In partnership with husband Premnath (the powerful film villain whose sister was married to Raj Kapoor),she formed a production company PN Films and their film Shagufa (1954) bombed at the box office. Subsequent productions Watan and Samundar did not fare well either. Her son,Prem Kishan,however,is a successful producer of software for television heading Cinvesta Films.